After examining The Big Lebowski for its parallels to philosophy, I have gained some perspective on how what we've discussed in class can be applied to life and real situations (even though my life is not as unrealistic or crazy as what is in this movie). The protagonist- "The Dude"- is truly exceptional in how cool he is with all the chaos around him, and in how carefree is of other people doing doing terrible or manipulative things. He is an expert at taking things as they come and letting things go. He is so nonchalant about these things that he hardly takes anything seriously, much less has any sort of goals for himself to achieve or attain, and definitely has no long-term planning.
Some philosophers and individuals may believe that it is both virtuous and within us to find this inner contentment with going with the flow, letting things go, and just taking life how it comes along. It supposedly can bring a form of tranquility that can't be found any other way, in that we totally let go of most or all of our material desires. However, I find two problems with this: 1) it is rather difficult to adopt such a mindset and live by it, and 2) it just doesn't sound like the ideal way to live, because I believe we're designed for have and pursue material gain (whether directly for the purpose of pleasure or not). We are beings formed through evolution just like any other living thing on the Earth, and so we are designed to pursue things that further our material gain and increase our status and worth. It is up to us as to whether we become consume with these things, or to what extent we choose to make these things important to us. But all that we do as humans- competing for a job, earning money and finding food, making a name for ourselves, or even just creating a home for ourselves and our family or finding love, are all built upon innate desires to further the self. In short, we are designed to seek fulfillment from gains that we pursue materially and otherwise, and I think the best contentment we can find is from attaining these things over the course of life.
(H3) I have to agree and disagree with this. We see the attainment of goals like objectives in a video game, getting X allows us to do Y. Or have A allows us to deal with situation B. However, I would argue that material goals are not the primary concern of men and woman on Earth. For example. I help my friend fix her car. This isn't a goal I did not intend to pursue and is in fact detrimental to me by coasting me time and money for no actual return. I find it very awarding because although I assist someone else in attaining something. If we are designed to pursue material gain then their is the great question of how we can act in the interests of others in a zero sum game. The best example is the solider at war. I might go to war for no other reason than service of country, i will suffer terrible deprivation and hardship, material lose, and the potential of death, indeed soldiers will often sacrifice themselves to ave their fellows. Granted this can allow for social capitol being acquired postmortem. But evolution deals with survival and genetic proliferation, this doesn't really serve either in a way scientifically explainable. as far as social forces are concerned they might encourage some level of self sacrifice. But rarely the amount of sacrifice such as you see in war or other extreme situations.
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